Premier Mark McGowan today said that 25 people form New Zealand, including a child, had entered Perth overnight and all of them are now in hotel quarantine, while the child is in a “quarantine arrangement” with a family member.
“We would prefer better management of these arrangements, but this is something that happened that was outside of our control,” the premier said at his daily press conference.
“That means that there will be 25 people less coming from more vulnerable locations as a consequence of this.
“If New South Wales and the NT want to open up to other countries, there is now an issue as to how to manage those people coming from other countries border-hopping.
“Our system has worked, we’ve managed to pick these people up and put them into quarantine.
“It would just be great if (the Federal Government) were to better assist us in managing these things with appropriate information being provided to the State Government about people who might be catching flights across state borders.”
Premier fumes over Kiwi arrivals
“We cannot just have people wandering into the place from another country,” he said.
“It is New Zealand today, but who knows what the next bubble is, who that is with? We have got authorised officers at the airport now, because this has happened.
“We didn’t think it would happen, but it has happened. We are going to follow up as much as we can.”
Border officers are now patrolling Melbourne airports to prevent further international arrivals from seeping into the city.
“How is someone from New Zealand to know what all these rules are?”
The premier said 23 New Zealanders who escaped into Melbourne have been located.
“We have been given a list, 12 hours after they arrived, that is “gold standard”, apparently,” he said.
“We are having to find these people. We get a phone number. We are ringing them, one of them was in Byron Bay. And yet we were told they had landed and travelled to Melbourne.”
Mr Andrews said the New Zealanders would not be kicked out of Victoria or sent home, as the state had “no power” to be able to initiate deportation.
“It doesn’t have to come to that, but to say that people were quite surprised that we found ourselves in this bubble despite the fact we had said we would not be, would be an understatement,” he said.
“We have a conversation with them, and we make sure that they know what the rules are. It is kind of a welfare check in many respects. Are you healthy? You know what the rules are? Here are all the rules.”
Source: 9News
